Learn how the E-N crime team does their jobs and read about the quirky characters they encounter and the sometimes bizarre things that can happen at a crime scene that don't make it into their stories.

Lomi Kriel: Toddler’s birthday party ends when parents brawl

Amanda Flores was expecting her toddler’s birthday to be a bang-up party.

Flores, 20, and her boyfriend of three years, Eric Flores, had arranged for cake and balloons.

They decorated the Peter Piper’s Pizza on the 800 block of Southwest Military Drive and invited scores of family and friends. Little Miranda was going to turn 3 in style.

Then, her father showed up.

That was OK, Flores thought. They’d been broken up for years and he’d been invited.

But suddenly her 3-year-old’s party turned into a police officer’s nightmare.

Inside the crowded pizza joint — home to at least three other toddlers’ parties whose parents had shared similar visions to Flores — a fight broke out.

Police say Miranda’s father — 21-year-old Joshua Rodriguez — became angry when he saw Eric Flores’ family at the party. He’d brought his own family along and, as the rightful father, thought his should take precedence. Eric Flores’ family didn’t belong.

As Miranda opened her first present, Rodriguez and Eric Flores began throwing jabs. The jabs turned heated. Someone threw a fist. Rodriguez, an onlooker said, drew a gun.

Flores’ mother jumped between the two.

Rodriguez’s brother took out his knife, nicking Eric Flores on the neck.

Miranda got pushed into the fray and the next thing you know, Peter Piper’s Pizza more closely resembled a bar in the wee morning hours than a little kid’s treat.

Two off-duty officers, working security, tried to jump in, one giving chase to Rodriguez. The battery on the officer’s radio was dying, however, and that, plus his harried breaths as he ran after the angry father, made the dispatcher nervous.

A place containing dozens of adults and children, an angry father and boyfriend, a stream of relatives, plus only two officers and a gun and knife somewhere in the mix could quickly turn horribly bad.

The dispatcher declared an “officer in trouble,” routing all officers in the area to the joint. Customers streamed out, balloons left to dangle and pizza turning cold. Children stared wide-eyed, not sure where the fun went.

“If you’re not waiting to eat, please leave,” he told the curious onlookers who had filled up the parking lot.

Later, he said he expected about six misdemeanor citations for fighting in public. The officers hadn’t yet found Rodriguez but suspected where he might be.

“From a 3-year-old’s birthday party to a whole mess,” said Paul Juarez, 36, the cousin of Eric Flores.

“He just doesn’t like the fact the he raised his daughter,” sobbed Amanda Flores, standing barefoot in the parking lot. “He’s the one that was there for her. He’s the one that stayed up with her at night and gave her her bottles.”

“It’s okay, mija,” Juarez tried to comfort.

As for Miranda, she was inside, likely wondering when the fuss would abate so she could finish opening her presents. It’s still her party, after all.